Khutbah at the Beginning of Shawwaal

Allah praise is due to Allah, the One who has opened the months of the Hajj with the month of Shawwaal and has made it a marketplace to obtain virtue and goodness. So exalted is He, the Magnificent deity beyond compare in His perfect and sublime characteristics, the One who knows the secret matters, the concealed affairs, and all things.

نحمده على فضله وكرمه ، ونشكره على أياديه ونعمه ـ

We praise Him for His bounty and generosity, and we thank Him for His blessings and favors.

We testify that there is no deity worthy of worship except Allah alone, with no partners, the Great and Most Exalted. This is a testimony that negates al-shirk and opposes misguidance. We hope to conclude our lives with this testimony, and it gives us peace in the face of fear and fright.

ونشهد أن سيدنا محمدا عبده ورسوله وخليله الصادق المقال . ـ

And we testify that our leader, Muhammad, is His slave and His messenger, His close one, and one truthful in speech.

اللهم صل على محمد وعلى آله وأصحابه خير صحب وآل ، وسلم تسليم . ـ

O Allah, send you blessings and salutations upon Muhammad, upon his family, and upon his companions – the best of companions and associates.

To proceed: O people, have taqwa of Allah, and beware of sins, for sins certainly result in loss and humiliation. Do not invalidate those good deeds which you did in the month of fasting, and do not upend that tranquil state or disrupt that peaceful period that came out of it. For just as good deeds do away with sins, likewise sins can invalidate righteous deeds. And certainly, one of the signs of the acceptance of a good deed is that another good deed would come after it, while one of the signs of a deed being rejected is for it to be followed up by vile actions.

Allah has made the first of this month as an ‘Eid for this ummah, and its end is a time for those far away to begin their journey towards the House of the Hajj. Allah opened this month with an ‘Eid to fill the hearts with joy, so do not disobey your Lord in it, as then the joy of your ‘Eid would ultimately come to be ruin. For sins can destroy a house of plenty and will bring about disgrace in this life and the next.

Without doubt, the best thing the reciters recite and the most effective reminder which a speaker can give is the speech of the One who says to a thing, “Be!” and it is. One of those things which Allah has said and through which He provided guidance to those who are rightly guided is – and I seek refuge with Allah from the accursed shaytaan – :

Those who are apprehensive from fear of their Lord *And who believe in the signs of their Lord *And who do not associate anything with their Lord * And who give what they give while their hearts are fearful because they will be returning to their Lord – * These are the ones who hasten to good deeds, and they are the forerunners to them. [23:57-61]

May Allah bless me and all of you in relation to the Magnificent Qur’an, and benefit me and all of you with the verses and perfect contents that it contains. I say these words and seek the forgiveness of Allah for me, for you, and for all Muslims, for our sins. So seek Allah’s forgiveness. Indeed, He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

3 thoughts on “Khutbah at the Beginning of Shawwaal: Imam al-Sa’di”

Salamalaikum, JazakAllah Khair for this article. Ya Akhi I had this question. Is there any difference between Sunnah Muakkadah and Fard? I ask this because of the statement of the Prophet Muhammad Salallahu alayhi wasallam used to say about some matters ” i fear that this will become Fard on my Ummah”

Wa iyyaak. Yes, Fard is a category of deed for which one is rewarded for performing and punished for leaving, while Sunnah al-Mu’akkadah is a category of deed for which one is rewarded for performing but not punished for leaving, even though it is highly encouraged to perform it. An example of the former would be the obligatory five daily prayers, while an example of the latter would be the optional sunnan al-rawaatib prayers (those highly-encouraged prayers connected to the obligatory prayers – 2 raka’at before Fajr, 4 before Thuhr, 2 after Thuhr, 2 after Maghrib, and 2 after ‘Ishaa’) which the Prophet (ﷺ) regularly performed. This was an example given by sheikh bin Baaz, sheikh ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Aal al-Sheikh, sheikh Saalih al-Fawzaan and sheikh Bakr Abu Zayd in their roles as members of the Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Fataawaa of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (see here).

In the future, please try to keep questions related to the content of the posts.